Clasp



March 5, 1940. .1. B. FREYSINGER ,7

CLASP Filed June 13, 1938 a "02mm L/OHN 5 EZEEYJ/NGEE Patented Mar. 5,1940 at 'r FFlCE CLASP New Britain, Conn,

necticut a corporation of Con- Application June 13, 1938, Serial No.213,305

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to clasps and more particularly to a claspadapted to be used in combination with a suspender.

An object of the present invention is to provide a clasp which isrelatively small and in which the over-all thickness is equivalent tothe thicknesses of the jaws thereof.

A still further object is to provide manually operated means for closingsaid clasp; said means being adapted to lie in the plane of one of thejaws when in engaged position.

A still further object is a clasp which may be made from stamped metalwith a minimum number of parts. is of pleasing appearance, and is bothsimple and economical to manufacture.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out moreindetail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction,combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will beexemplified in the construction hereafter set forth and the scope of theapplication of which will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a front View of one embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side view of Fig. 1 with the clasp in closed position;

Fig. 3 is a side view of Fig. l with the clasp in open position;

Fig. 4 is a sectional View on the line L- l of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the front jaw member of the clasp;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the pivotal connectionbetween the jaw members;

Fig. 7 is a perspective enlarged view of the manually operable closinglever of the clasp;

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a modified actuating lever; and

Fig. 9 is a sectional view of a clasp utilizing the lever of Fig. 8.

The invention comprises in general a pair of pivotally connected jawmembers it and i2, spring means It normally urging the jaws to openposition, and a manually operable means it for urging the jaws to closedposition; said manually operable means being adapted to lie in the planeof and closely engage the periphery of the front jaw member when theclasp is closed.

The front jaw member Ill comprises a face plate it! having flanges 2!extending rearwardly from the side edges thereof and a flange 22extending rearwardly from the lower edge thereof.

The rear jaw member I2 is similarly formed with side flanges 24 and abottom flange 23, and as the rear jaw is slightly smaller than the frontjaw the flanges thereon will lie within the flanges of the front jaw.The side flanges 2 of the rear jaw member are each provided with an out-5' wardly turned pivot pin or trunnion 23 positioned approximatelymid-way from the top and bottom edges thereof and adapted to be receivedwithin a pair of aligned openings 38 in the side flanges 20 of the frontjaw member to pivotally connect the jaws together.

The jaws are normally urged to open position by the spring means Hiwhich may be made of a piece of strip steel bent to U shape and placedbetween the jaws in inverted position with one leg 32 engaging the rearsurface of the face plate l8 of the front jaw member illadjacent thelower edge thereof and the other leg 3% engaging the rear surface offace plate i5 of the rear jaw member [2 adjacent the lower edge thereof.The spring is prevented from upward move" ment by a tongue 36 struck outand bent inwardly from the face plate [5 of the rear jaw member, thusmaintaining the spring means i l in engagement with the jaw membersbeneath the pivot 28, whereby the jaws will be normally urged to openposition.

The manually operable means for closing the jaws is stamped from a pieceof metal into the form of an open rectangular frame with the top crossbar bent rearwardly from and at right angles to the side and bottomcross bars; the upper cross bar thus providing a transverse lever 38having a rearwardly extending portion or camming arm 39 and reduced ends4!! which are interconnected by the U-shaped member .12 com prising theside and cross bars of the frame member. The lever 38 is positionedrearwardly of face plate 13 of the front jaw member, with the reducedends 40 thereof supported in and extending through a pair of alignedrecesses at out out from the upper edge of the side flanges 2c of thefront jaw member it whereby the lever may be journalled therein to movethe camming arm 39 into and out of engagement with the rear jaw memberI2. With the lever 38 so mounted, the U member 42 is angularly arrangedrelative to the camming arm 39 to depend from the reduced ends 40 toclosely engage the outer periphery of and lie in the plane of the frontjaw member ll! when the camming arm 39 is in closed engagement with therear jaw l2. The lever 38 is secured in place by offsetting or rollingover the top portion of the face plate I8 of the front jaw member 10 toclose the recess and to also provide a longitudinal opening 46 in whichthere may be pivotally mounted a suspenderengaging loop 48.

The operation will be readily understood by referring to Figs. 2 and 3.When loop 42 lies in the plane of jaw member 10, the lever 38 is atright angles thereto and the reawardly extending camming arm 39 engagesthe rear face of jaw member l2 above the pivots 28, camming the upperend of the jaw member outwardly and the lower end inwardly to closedposition against the tendency of the spring M to move the jaws to openposition. When loop 42 is swung forwardly out of the plane of jaw It andout of engagement with the periphery thereof, the lever 38 will be movedin a clockwise direc tion, as seen in Fig. 3, whereupon the camming arm.39 will pivot downwardly out of closing engagement with the rear jawmember i2 and the spring M will urge the lower end of the jaw member l2outwardly and the upper end inwardly to open the jaws.

As clearly indicated by Fig. 2, when the clasp is closed, the loop 42lies in the plane of jaw member 60 and the over-all thickness of theclasp is not increased over the combined thickness of the jaw members.Likewise, all projecting parts are eliminated and the loop 42 has theappearance of being coextensive with and a part of the front plate H].Moreover, as the lever 38 is at right angles to the loop 42, no turningmovement results and unintentional opening of the clasp is eliminated.Such unintentional opening is further hindered by the close fit of theloop to the periphery of the clasp.

As shown in Figs. 8 and 9, the lever and loop may be made from a pieceof wire bent substantially to form an open rectangular member 50 withrearwardly extending camming arms 52 projecting at right angles to thetop cross bar or lever 53. The member 50 is supported in the recesses 44of the front jaw Ill and operates in like manner to the lever of thefirst embodiment.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and manyapparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be madewithout departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all mattercontained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawingshall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the followingclaims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features ofthe invention herein described and all statements of the scope of theinvention which, as a matter of language, might be said to falltherebetween.

I claim as my invention:

1. A clasp comprising cooperating jaw members pivoted together forrelative movement towards open and closed position, one jaw memberhaving a face plat and flanges extending rearwardly from the side edgesthereof, said flanges having aligned apertures therethrough, a U- shapedoperating member having side arms and a bottom arm surrounding and lyingclosely adjacent the outer periphery and in the plane of the jaw memberbelow said flange apertures, the upper extremities of the side armshaving portions turned inwardly and seated within said flange aperturesrearwardly of the face plate of the jaw member for pivotally mountingsaid operating member for movement into and out of the plane of the jawmember, and cam means disposed between said jaw members and carried bysaid side arm inturned seated portions for holding said jaw members inclosed position when said operating member lies in the plane of the jawmember.

2. A clasp comprising cooperating jaw members pivoted together forrelative movement towards open and closed position, one jaw memberhaving a face plate and flanges extending rearwardly from the side edgesthereof, said jaw member having a Suspender-receiving loop se- CLl16d tothe upper end thereof, the flanges of said jaw member having alignedapertures therethrough adjacent said Suspender-receiving loop, aU-shaped operating member having side arms and a bottom arm surroundingand lying closely adjacent the outer periphery and in the plane of thejaw member below said flange apertures, the upper extremities of theside arms having portions turned inwardly and seated within said flangeapertures rearwardly of the face plate of the jaw member for pivotallymounting said operating member for movement into and out of the plane ofthe jaw member, and cam means disposed between said jaw members andcarried by said side arm inturned seated portions for holding said jawmembers in closed posi tion when said operating member lies in the planeof the jaw member.

3. A clasp comprising cooperating jaw members pivoted together forrelative movement towards open and closed position, one jaw memberincluding a face plate and flanges extending rearwardly from the sideedges thereof, said jaw member having a web-receiving loop secured tothe upper end thereof, the side flanges of said jaw members beingprovided with oppositely disposed apertures adjacent said loop-receivingmember, and a locking member supported in said apertures and comprisinga rectangular frame having its upper cross bar supported in saidapertures rearwardly of the face plate and its side arms andinterconnecting bottom arm lying in the plane of the front jaw memberand closely adjacent the periphery thereof, and cam means disposedrearwardly of the face plate of said jaw member and carried by the uppercross arm of said frame member for holding said jaw members in closedposition when said locking member lies in the plane of the jaw member.

JOHN B. FREYSINGER.

